Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-28
THINGS OF THE DEEP.
A RAGE P0R KILLING SWORDPISH NOW
PREVAILING.
a Party to Leave New York for the Sport Thi,
Week-Nsw Facts From Prof GOOds About
the Swordfsh- Savagsly Piercing a YES
sci Twenty Times.
Nal and Express, Spt. Ii.

hSh, the season for killing which is JUS
now in its height. They will 90 first t.
Newport, where pilots will be engaged
and thence to Nantucket, where the fish
are. Expeditions of this kind are rare
both because OF the skill necessary to sue
cessiully cope with the big savage fish, anG
also because of the danger to men and yes
sells. Nevertheless the sport is becoming
the rage this fall among fishermen anxiou!
to Kill big game and everything concern
ing 1t Is taken up and discussed with the
greatest interest.
In making inquiries on the subject, to.
day, areporter for the Nail and EXPIRES,
learned that a work is in press by 4. r.
Hart d Co, which gives an original chap,
ter on swOrd.fshing. The work is by
Prot. Il. Brown GOode, the ~newly-appoint.
ed United States Fish Commissioner, and
Is to be entitled American Fishes" II
is TO he a complete work on the game and
food fishes of North America. Mr.. Hart
has obtained many valuable hints for his
hazardous expedition from this account, as
we'll as much new and interesting knowl,
edge about the swordfish. Through his
courtesy the reporter was permitted ia
glance at the proof-sheets.
THE pursuit Ofthe swOrdtish, Professor
Goode says, lis much more exciting than or
binary fishing, for it resembles the hunting
OF large animals upon the land and partakes
more OF the nature of the chase. There is
no slow or careful batting and patient
waiting, and no disappointment caused by
the accidental capture of worthless bait
s~tealers. The game is seen and followed,
and Outwitted by wary tactics and killed
hy strength of arn and skill. The sword
fish is a powerful antagonist, sometimes,
and sends his pursuers' vessel into
harbOr leaking, and almost sinking, from
injuries he has inflicted. | have known
a vessel to be struck by wounded sword
fish a. many as twenty times in q season.
There is even the spice of personal danger
to give SAVIOR to the chase, for the men are
occasionally injured by the Infatuated fish.
One of Capt. Ashy's crew was severely
wounded by n swordiish, which thrust his
heak through the oak floor OF 4 boat on
which he was standing, and pene.
tTated about two inches in his
naked heel. The strange fascination
draws men TO this pursuit when they
have once learned its charms. An old
swOrdfshermau, who had followed the
pursuit for twenty years, told me that
when lie was on tho cruising ground he
tiShed all night in his dreams, and that
many Il time he has bruised his hands and
rubbed tie skin OF his knucklcs by strik-
ing them against the ceiling of his bunk
when he raised his arms TO thrust the har,
pooh into the visionary monster sword,
fishes"
The Professor says that many swOrdtish
attain the weight OF 400 and 500 pounds
each, while SOM grow TO 600 pounds. The
largest ever taken by Capt. Ashby, who
for twenty years was 4 swOrdlishcrman,
vas killed On the shoals back Of Edgar,
town, Mass, and when sailed weighed
639 pounds. Its live weight must have
been rs much rs 80 or o pounds. It's
sword measured nearly six feet. The only
individual fish Of which there has been
kept the exact measurements was taken
of %SeacOnnet, L. l., July %, 1874. This
was seven feet seven inches long, and
weighed ll3 pounds. The average weight
OF those about Block Island il 300 pounds.
For many years 300 TO 600 Of these fish
haze been taken annually on the New Eng
land coast. 1t is not unusual for twenty,
five or more to be seen in the course of q Q
single days cruising, and sometimes as
many as this are visible from the masthead
at one time. The swOrdfsh comes into
Eastern waters in pursuit OF food, preying
on menhaden and mackerel. The appear,
ance of the fish at the surface depends ap
parently on temperature. They are seer
only on quiet summer days, in the morning
before 10 and II, and in the afternoon after
noon after 4 o'clock. Old fishermen say
they rise when the mackerel rise, and
when the mackerel 90 down they 90 down
also. The fish when swimming Mt the
surface usually allows its dorsal fin and
the upper lobe of its caudal fin to I've WISH
bic, projecting ont of the water several
inches. II is this habit which enables the
fishermen to detect the presence of the
fish. II swims slowly along, and the fish
ing schooner with a light breeze finds DC
difficulty in Overtaking it.
When excited, Prot. GOOde says, the
swOrdfSh's motions are most quick and
nervous. The fish are sometimes seen to
lcap entirely out of the water. The point,
ed head. the fins of the back and abdomen
simply fitting into grooves, the absence OF
ventrals, the long, 1.-the, muscular body,
sloping slowly to the tail, fit it for the
most rapid and fOrciblc movement through
the water. IL strikes with the accumu
lated force OF fifteen double-headed
hammers. Its velocity is equal to that
- ,,r,y.1 shot n,I ~ - hannprnng in
it's effects as a heavy artillery proiectile.
| Many very curious instances are On record
of the encounters of this fish with other
fishes, or of their attacks upon ships.
What can be the Involvement for it to at
attack objects so much larger than itselfis
hard to surmise. IL surely seems az if a
temporary insanity sometimes takes pos
session of the fish. An old swOrdfsher-
man told Mr.. Blackford that his vessel had
been struck twenty times. There are,
however, many instances of entirely un-
provoked assault on vessels at sea.
HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT.
The apparatus employed in the capture
of~swordtish, Prof. GOOde says, is simple.
1t is a harpoOn with a detachable head.
| When the fish is struck the head of the
" AANAA hAN 49,
harpoon remains in the body OF the fish,
and carries with il 4 light rope, which is
either made fast or held by a man
in a small boat. or is attached TO some
kind of buoy, which is tOwed
through the water by the struggling fish,
and which marks its whereabouts after
death. The harpOon consists of a pole
ffteeen or sixteen feet in length, usually
of hickory or some other hard wood, upon
which the bark has been left so that the
harpooner may have a frmer hand grip.
This pole is from an inch aid a half to two
inches in diameter, and at one end is pro-
vided with aniron rod or shank about two
feet long and ive.eights Of an inch in di.
ameter. This shank is fastened TO
the pole by means Of a cOnical W
elongated, cuplike expansion at one end,
which gets over the sharpened end OF the
pole, to which it is secured by screws or
spikes. A light line extends from one end
OF the pole to the point where it Joins the
shank, and in this line is tied = loop, by
which is made fast another short line,
which secures the pole to the vessel OF
boat, 70 that when it is thrown at the fish
it cannot he lost. Upon the end OF the
shank fits the head Of the harpOon.
III entire weight of the harpOOu, pole